At Risk (Win Garano Book 1)

While the characters of Win Gerano, his Nana, D.A. Monique Lamont, and Detective Sykes are very well drawn and interesting, the plot/mystery of this book is not. Just when I thought we were getting to the end of the 'exposition' portion of the book, we were having the whodunit explained to us...as well as the political machinations behind it. Also of annoyance: the fact that almost every character has a nickname, and Win has two!
I was just confused the whole time I was reading this book, and for the kind of book one reads for escape purposes, one doesn't want to have to think so hard. Not a fan, won't be obtaining more of this series.

I love reading Patricia Cornwell books, and looked forward to this one. I've been waiting for some time for Ms. Cornwell to find new characters since I think the ones in the Kay Scarpetta series are getting tired and worn. Winston Garano shows some promise as a main character, and I liked his sidekick "Sykes". There are still some good forensics in the book as well. We have a high flying district attorney who will do anything to win the position of Governor, and she has some unexplainable hold on Win. We also have a cold case that really "heats Up" when Win and Sykes are put on it. There are many twists and turns in the plotbefore this short book comes to a close.

Winston Garano, a forensic investigator who is given an assignment that has been in the cold case bucket for 20 years thinks his talents are being wasted on a stupid, old investigation.
"AT RISK" is a new program in the anti-crime program that District Attorney, Monique Lamont has her greedy hands on. Winston is working his knuckles to the bone on the coldcase, while Winston wants to further her program---she wonders if there will be interferance from Winston.
There is no Scarpetta or Lucy in this novel which to me is Cornwell's bread and butter for mystery writing. The plot is boring, flat and downright bad. I was disappointed.

Once (okay, the last two or three times) bitten, twice shy, as they say. I only read this Cornwell offering because it was handed to me by a friend. Frankly, it was a bit better than some of Cornwell's recent dreck -- unless, of course, you expect a story to have a beginning and an ending. Add 50 pages introducing the characters and why the chief one is in Tennessee, then tack 50 more on the end to let us know how things all turn out for those characters, and you have a standard-length $25 novel, instead of 224 pages of serialized magazine rebound. And what's with the present tense story-telling (Oh, yeah, the magazine -- trying to make it immediate for the reader in the featurish style. Been there, done that!)? Please stop it! Bottom line: if I'd have paid for this book, it would have gotten a 1-rating. As it is, not as total a waste of time as it would be of money.

This book is nothing like the first few Scarpetta novels, which were full of character development and thorough plotting. All you know about the main characters at the end of this tale are bits of idiosyncratic behavior tossed together as if they explain who they are and the deep why's of what they do. I kept thinking I'd somehow missed whole chapters because so much seemed left out. Hardy worth the time I spent. Disappointed.

Not Patricia Cornwell's usual crisp writing. The story line is disjointed with the characters lacking depth.I almost quit but was worth reading in the end. I would recommend to someone looking for something different. Enjoy reading

Sample sentence from page 2:

"Big raindrops feel like irritable fingers tapping the top of his head and he is overcome by anxiety as he stands on the old red-brick walk in the midst of the old red-brick Yard, looking up and down Quincy Street, watching people spew past in cars and on bicycles, a few on foot and hunched under umbrellas."

If this had been the opening sentence it would have been worthy of a Bulwer-Lytton award.

It didn't improve much beyond that. Not a sympathetic character in sight. Even the hero cop who gets emasculated by his bitchy female boss takes out his aggression on a poor cabby by shoving a badge under his nose and then underpaying the fare because the "middle-eastern" driver didn't know the destination and needed directions.

Not much character development. Not much plot. Almost no forensics. Thankfully short.

Like almost everyone else, I was disappointed by AT RISK. This book features almost no character development, a silly plot, and a downer of an ending. Many of the characters and situations in this book are just plain unpleasant.

AT RISK started as a serialized short story in The New York Times Magazine. The book is a little over 200 pages and the print is very large. This book therefore reads quickly: I finished it in under two hours. Despite this fact, it is being sold as a full-fledged novel at a $21.95 price tag. Ms. Cornwell, you need to treat your fans better than this! We expect more book for our money.

It's a shame this book hit #1 on the bestseller list when there are so many better crime novels out there. My only solace was that I checked this book out from the library, and didn't waste my hard-earned money on it.

Whew! I'm relieved to see all the scathing reviews on At Risk. I have read all of Patricia Cornwell's books and always thought they were pretty good. So when I picked this one up, and found myself lost by page 3, I started over. Then by page 10, I was lost again and had to consult earlier pages. This continued through much of the book. My most common emotions were "Huh?" "What?" "Which one was that again?". I thought maybe my confusion and inability to follow the story meant that I was suffering a silent stroke. Imagine my relief to find out that it was only bad writing.

I wont bother reviewing this book's content. It's faster than Nyquil for you insomia suffers but its only 10am here and I dont want to fall alseep on my keyboard. Lets just say it wasnt Patricia's "best effort". Besides I'm still not really sure what happened or why.

I can't figure out why Patricia gave everyone such weird names too. Sykes (female?) Lamont (female?), Win/Geranimo (anygry/beautiful black man?). Good heavens.

Anyway, in sum, it's bad. Not even worth taking out at the libary- honestly you arent missing anything. The only positive that came out of this is I actually realized how good Patricia's other books were, this one being SO BAD in comparison. Maybe that was the plan all along.

I grabbed this book out the door, something to read while getting my car serviced. It was a good choice; quick read, smart and entertaining. Cornwell is a master at her craft, making shrewd word choices that speaks volumes (sans tedium) in this amphetamine-paced thriller.

Sorry to say I was disappointed in this book. Patricia Cornwell is generally held in high regard in reading and writing circles, but you couldn't tell by this one. The plot is weak, the characters are shallow, the end unsatisfying. It reads like a high school student wanna-be author. I didn't get any real connection between the characters, no strong emotions, and the action was far fetched. Superficial at best - but maybe just not appealing to my interests.

Okay, I was hard headed! Despite the bad reviews, I got the audio version of this book from my local library and transferred it to my iPod to listen on my daily commute. Figured it couldn't be that bad, being only 4 hours. Boy, was I wrong! Didn't even finish half of it! Not only was the storyline choppy and sporatic, the narration was awful! Even Kate Reading couldn't make it sound good.

Publishers should have left well enough alone and kept it as a magazine series.

So, if you insist on giving this one a try, get it from the library!

This was my first Patricia Cornwell read and quite a disappointing experience. I disliked the style of writing (first person, present tense), found the lack of personal pronouns irritating, and the short, choppy dialogue came across as unnatural. The scene changes were jarring and there was little to no suspense, contrary to the back cover blurb. With very little character development, I cared nothing for any of them. The story reads as though little effort went into creating it.

I usually like Patricia Cornwell's books, but not this one. The detective has a "feeling" so that he happens to save his boss's life. He's been assigned to re-open a 20 year old unsolved case in another state, but he gets a friend to do all the research. Eventually, it all manages to come together, but the whole thing didn't seem "real" to me the way her other books do. Sorry, I can only give it 3 stars.

Like many others have already said, this book was a huge disappointment. I usually love Patricia Cornwell's books, like Postmortem, but "At Risk" doesn't even come close to her other novels. The characters weren't fully developed, the plot made little or no sense, and the ending was just kind of "there". If you're new to reading Patricia Cornwell read one of her other books instead. If you're a regular Cornwell reader, do yourself a favor, skip this one and save yourself the disappointment.

I cannot believe this book was written by Patricia Cornwell. While she's not my favorite author (Tess Gerritsen gets that nod for mysteries), she is certainly far better than this book would lead one to believe. It's a good thing this isn't the first work I've read by her, or I would never have read another one. While I agree that the Scarpetta novels are getting old, especially since Lucy become a main character, this certainly wasn't the way to go to introduce us to a new cast. Very few of the characters were particularly likable, and the run-on sentences got very old very quickly. Come on, Patricia. You can do better than this.

I was a fan of Cornwell from "postmortem" on. Every one of her books had plenty of merit. After reading this book I had to ask myself if the writer really was Patricia Cornwell. It's very amaturish, sounding like a cheap romance novel written by an unknown. It is that bad ! From a male investigator who buys designer clothes in a thrift store, to a female DA who buys designer clothes, well, that's about the gist of the story. Boring, pointles and a complete waste of time.

Normally I love Patricia Cornwell but honestly this book really made me wonder what had happened. Maybe I have been spoiled by the Scarpetta series but this book didn't seem as well thought out and I never did connect with the characters. It seemed rushed and at all times I remembered I was reading instead of getting caught up in the action. I love to reread books but can honestly say that 'At Risk' will stayed archived in my Kindle and not be revisited.

This one started off interesting enough with a detective being pulled and pushed by a female DA who has aspirations for a higher political positions. A 20 year old murder comes into the mix with missing files and a new DNA database: Any Crime, Any Time!

Too many characters, undeveloped I might add, are intorduced and I found myself thinking, "what is this book about and why am I reading it?" I finished it only out of respect for the great writer Patricia Cornwell used to be. It was confusing and boring and I am still a bit unsure why PC's people allowed this one to be published!

Even if you love Ms. Cornwell, take a pass on this one!

This is new series (not Kay Scarpetta). Although the characters are interesting the story is short and not well developed.

Winston Garano is called out of forensics school to solve a decades old crime. His boss, Monique Lamont, is using the case to further her political career. Before he can even get started, strange events happen, followed by an act of violence. Politics, personal lives and crime are intertwined in this story.

Today I completed Patricia Cornwell's "At Risk." I must be honest and say that I was bored from beginning to end. Up until this book, I have thoroughly enjoyed all the of Patricia Cornwell books. This book, however, is the first book written by any author I have read in a long time where I did not actually care whether or not I finished reading it or not. I was so bored with it that I had to force myself to see how it ended - not that I really cared. Like other reviews that I have read, this book does not read as if Patricia Cornwell wrote it. Usually when I read a Cornwell book, I can get into the characters, see the scenes with clarity and feel like I'm there watching things unfold. With "At Risk," the characters were shallow and meaningless and I could not get a clear mental picture of the locations, scenes, etc. Nothing seemed to be well thought out - the plot, characters and their interactions, etc. I'm hoping that Patricia Cornwell was on a deadline, woke up one morning and remembered that she had a book due that day and just slapped something together for the sake of having something to turn in. If this is the caliber of her future works, I fear here readership will drop dramatically.

I thought the book was an entertaining story, but it was more of a novelette than a true novel. It was very short and the plot line very sketchy. The characterizations were just that, short stereotypes with little individual character. I actually like "At Risk" more than the last couple of "Scarpetta" novels, or the "Isle of Dogs" fiasco. I do agree with a couple of the other reviewers that this book appeared to be somewhat thrown together, probably in response to the publisher's demands. If Patricia Cornwell wants to recover any of her lost readers, she will need to put more effort into her next work.

I find myself very disappointed with this book. I've been wanting to read some of Patricia Cornwell's books for a while now and this was the first. The storyline was okay, but definately not great. I felt like I was reading an abridged version that had been attacked by an over zealous editor. I re-read certain paragraphs trying to connect the sentences that seemed hacked together. Scenes had a habit of changing abruptly too, with Win transporting himself all over the show.

I did enjoy Win's character, although he was the only character I felt was complete. The rest of the cast seemed like afterthoughts. Even Lamont, who was a fairly important character in the story, was two dimensional. Once scene with her talking to Win seemed rather awkward (she said, smoking).

I reached the last page and turned over expecting another chapter and was surprised to find a blank sheet. I turned back thinking I had turned two pages by mistake then re-read the last few pages. Hmmm. My book is faulty! I've lost the last chapter, surely!

Even the investigation of the murder was insubstantial. Was this the side plot, or was it the main story?

A very odd book, I wouldn't recommend buying this unless you want a quick read on a plane without having to think too much. The cover is well done though, nice tones.

I have the previous favorable reviews and they are longer than the book.

I, like others, have a full collection of Patrica Cornwell books and couldn't wait until this title came out. Now I am dissappointed.

The book is a novelette. Ms Cornwell needs more time with her style of writing to develop her new characters. The only characters I cared about were Nana and Miss Dog and they were side characters. Every one else just annoyed me. I didn't get enough information to have any feelings about them. Its pretty bad when a character gets raped and you don't care. The characters are more complex and the time should have been spent rounding them out.

This is the last Cornwell book I will read until she can get her act together. What happened? Did her publisher press her to get one out?

First and foremost, I HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK. And I'll not read it based on the reviews posted here and my reading of her last Scarpetta debacle, "Predator." I do believe Cornwell has lost her touch. Case in point, her last two Scarpetta offerings, while fairly well-written and suspenseful through the majority of the books, the endings were simply anti-climatic and bordering on farcical. I think it time that Ms. Cornwell take a break, read reviews such as these & take them to heart, and go back to her literary roots that made her an outstanding author. I only hope she can do so as for now, she's been removed from my 'must read' list.

I have been a Patricia Cornwell fan for years and have read all of the Scarpetta series and loved them. This book "At Risk" is a HUGE disappointment! The characters are unlikable and shallow, the plot is superficial and very forgettable. I hope Cornwell doesn't plan to make these characters into a series -- they aren't worth the paper it's printed on! Patricia Cornwell, go back to the drawing board and try again. Sorry, but "At Risk" is a loser!

I have the previous favorable reviews and they are longer than the book.

I, like others, have a full collection of Patrica Cornwell books and couldn't wait until this title came out. Now I am dissappointed.

The book is a novelette. Ms Cornwell needs more time with her style of writing to develop her new characters. The only characters I cared about were Nana and Miss Dog and they were side characters. Every one else just annoyed me. I didn't get enough information to have any feelings about them. Its pretty bad when a character gets raped and you don't care. The characters are more complex and the time should have been spent rounding them out.

This is the last Cornwell book I will read until she can get her act together. What happened? Did her publisher press her to get one out?

First and foremost, I HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK. And I'll not read it based on the reviews posted here and my reading of her last Scarpetta debacle, "Predator." I do believe Cornwell has lost her touch. Case in point, her last two Scarpetta offerings, while fairly well-written and suspenseful through the majority of the books, the endings were simply anti-climatic and bordering on farcical. I think it time that Ms. Cornwell take a break, read reviews such as these & take them to heart, and go back to her literary roots that made her an outstanding author. I only hope she can do so as for now, she's been removed from my 'must read' list.

I have been a Patricia Cornwell fan for years and have read all of the Scarpetta series and loved them. This book "At Risk" is a HUGE disappointment! The characters are unlikable and shallow, the plot is superficial and very forgettable. I hope Cornwell doesn't plan to make these characters into a series -- they aren't worth the paper it's printed on! Patricia Cornwell, go back to the drawing board and try again. Sorry, but "At Risk" is a loser!

Monique Lamont is the DA in Boston; she's aggressive, demanding and self-centered. Winston Garano (Win) is a Massachusetts State Police investigator assigned to Lamont; he's a loner and questions her motives. She's called him back from a class at the National Forensic Academy in Nashville to stick him with a cold Tennessee case that she thinks will look good for her and the smarmy Massachusetts governor. At Risk is the governor's (really Lamont's) new crime initiative to get offenders off the street so society is less at risk.

Win phones a colleague at the seminar to look into the cold Nashville cash. He's stuck in Boston because when he went to Lamont's house to tell her he was quitting, he killed a scumbag who'd raped and was about to murder her. These two subplots are brought together in this rather bland read.

Cornwell's writing started out as great reading. Plot, characterization and style all contributed to books we looked forward to collecting. In the last couple of Scarpetta books, it seemed she stopped liking her characters and came up with implausible twists.

In 'At Risk' - she denigrates all the characters as they're introduced and the writing style itself is choppy. It's going back to the library unread. Not surprising the wait list is long but the wait isn't.

I am sooooo disappointed with Patricia Cornwell's latest [attempt at a] novel...admittedly, the last couple [of books] she has written/published have not been great, or at least not up to her usual caliber/standards - which is generally of the "have-to-buy-it-as-soon-as-it-hits-the-shelves" and "can't-put-it-down-'til-I'm-done"/page-turner variety; however, I thought she was just in a rut or a slump or something - and that she would be redeeming herself soon - with this novel, I had hoped, actually...!!

Boy, was I ever wrong...!! This book may possibly be even worse than the last one she wrote - she seems to be continuing in a downward spiral, and I am not sure why...??!! Whatever the reason[s], I am still hoping and believing that this is not a permanent "slump" and that the next book she writes will be of the type/quality we have seen in her earlier novels (i.e. in the Kay Scarpetta series) - if not, I hate to say it, but: she may just lose me [for good!] as a reader/customer...!! :(

I picked up At Risk with excitement - it seemed a bit thin. I opened the first page - it was double spaced! Where was the meaty thriller I'd grown used to Patricia Cornwell delivering? I began to read, still hopeful, yet hopes were dashed by disconnected story lines, poorly developed characters, random themes picked up and discarded like gum wrappers on the side of the road. It read like a poorly written outline of a book.

I have read Cornwall for years, enjoy Kay Scarpetta and crew, yet - even they have become parodies of themselves during the past few books. Apparently Patricia Cornwell has fallen prey to the same disease which many of our prolific writers have fallen prey to - the misbelief that they are so good they don't need an excellent editor. My hats off to marketing for managing to get this one on the shelves, and thumbs down to everyone related to taking our money on this one. I won't be buying Cornwell again.

I have read all of Patricia Cornwell books and love them all. Except this one. I just liked it. It was okay. Not what I've come to expect from one of my favorite authors. I was excited to see that there were new characters and I did enjoy them - as much as there was to know about them. However the whole story did not develop very well, and it left me feeling like I missed a whole bunch of the 'potential' story. I ended the book feeling like Ms. Cornwell was trying to make a statement to someone with this book rather than telling a story. Very disappointed.

This book is another story in the Win Garano series and I loved it very much! I love how you don't know the outcome until the very end of the book. The series is so different from the other books Cornwell writes, and just as great!!!

I was extremely disappointed in this latest Cornwell book. Usually her novels are filled with suspenseful information. With every turn of the page I hoped it would improve but it did not. At the end, I felt that I had wasted my time. This book has the depth of a 12 year old. Ms. Cornwell started out writing her books with a central character - Kay Scarpetta and they were great whodunits. But somewhere she got lost - adding in hi-tech gadgets and people you didn't want to know or care about. Please get Kay Scarpetta back to a Crossing Jordan type plot.

For years,I have been a faithful Patricia Cornwell reader, but her last two books have been far less interesting than her earlier ones. In fact I didn't even finish At Risk. The character development was so weak, I couldn't relate to any of the characters (they seemed to belong more in a Harlequin romance book than in what I have come to expect from Patricia Cornwell).The plot was hackneyed and dull. I certainly could not recommend this book to anyone.

Very disappointed in this book. I've read all of Patricia Cornwell's earlier novels and truly enjoyed her work but she's definitely lost it lately. In my opinion her last few books have not been up to the standards I'd grown to expect from her earlier work. This one unfortunately reads like a "formula paperback". Undeveloped characters, predictable events, weak plot & weak ending. If she's run out of good ideas or energy, maybe she should just take a break rather than keep publishing these low quality reads.

Ok the characters are great although you do feel you've come into the book partially into the story which is a little weird, all in all very disjointed?? It unfolds thick and fast (and is a little confusing) ending rather disappointedly at only page 181? Now I dont know about the rest of you but I dont need to read in such a huge font size, and had they realistically reduced the font size to a normal size (i.e. not meant for a child) you would be looking at a book no longer than a hundred pages.

Why am I moaning so much about the page count? Purely because of the cost of the book at an RRP of 12.99 UK price I feel this is far too pricy for what you actually get. I actually managed to get through the whole book in an hour and a half. What a waste of money.

Potentially though given a good run at least the size of a Kay Scarpetta novel, the characters will mesh very well together and there is a good potential for a new series to be born.

I have read every book to date and enjoyed them all immensely, I do however feel very let down by At Risk which is clearly not up to cornwell's usual standards, come back Kay Scarpetta we miss you!

How disappointing. I was wondering if this book was written by P. C. ?!

After all this years it finished my enthuiasm for Cornwell and I will never again buy a book without waiting for enough positive (!) online reviews made by happy readers.

After "Predator" which was disappointing as well, I truly believed it can't get worse. Unfortunately it can.

Let's hope that Win Garano will vanish like the Andy Brazil series and Mrs. Cornwell reads our reviews. It's not worth to be continued.

but half way through the plot just sputters and dies. I thought that Cornwell was spinning another of her early conspiracy-type plots that made Scarpetta great (before she became a pale imitation of herself) but she did not develop the plot or characters at all. With more emphasis on the plot and character development this book could have been pretty decent. I get the impression that P. Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta has gone the way of Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake. They both have become characters that you can't bring yourself to care about any more.

From someone who loves Kay Scarpetta and the depth Patricia Cornwell puts into those novels, At Risk was a huge disappointment. I think the characters have depth potential that is never explored, but you feel as though you've been dropped in the middle of the story with little to no background or meaning behind what the characters do, feel or say. You feel as though you're dangling; you feel as though it was rushed. Not a typical Cornwell.

Most people posting reviews have a very negative view of this book. This is not Cornwell's typical work as At Risk was written as part of a 15 part serial for the New York Times Magazine. At Risk is the title of a crime initiative being implemented by a female district attorney who plans to run for governor. She wants one of her investigators to reopen and solve a 20-yr. old murder case in another state using new DNA technology. Then the district attorney herself becomes a crime victim. It is a short novel, and it can be read in a couple of hours, but it keeps moving and held my interest.

For my first Patrica Cornwell book, I thought At Risk was a good cheesy thriller. I found it much like CSI, or something of that sort. I believe that it came out too much like a Hollywood show rather than a serious thriller. The main characters were sexy or seductive, and there was a mid-life crisis partner. Despite the played out character types in this thriller, the plot had an interesting twist and kept me wanting to read more, for the most part. The only time I had to put the novel down was when SVU or some real Hollywood forensic show was on TV. Anyways, I enjoyed this novel because it was an easy read, and I could finish it in about a day, thank god. However I rather read a novel that gives you a chance to figure out the mystery before you reach the end through hints or various inauspicious events, I just think that makes the novel more fun to read. Over all I think the novel was average, despite its cheesy characters, and unpredictable ending. But I don't recommend the novel for others to read.

I have been a Patricia Cornwell fan for years, and have read all of her books. I was somewhat disappointed with Blowfly, I thought she could have done a better job with that. But with At Risk, I was so disappointed with this one, I don't know that I'll read Cornwell any more. The book to me was such an absolute waste of my time but I felt obligated to finish in hopes that it might get better somewhere before the end. No such luck. It goes to show, that the New York Times doesn't always know what they're talking about. Don't waste your money or your time with this one.

It's hard to believe that Patricia Cornwell wrote this book. Everything about it is bad - the style of writing, the unlikeable characters, and the choppiness of the story line. It may be unrealistic to expect an author to crank out a great book everytime, but if the story is bad, please don't publish it. By wasting money on this book, it will make me reluctant to purchase the next Patricia Cornwell book.

With the exception of "Preditor", I have read and enjoyed read Cornwell's books. This books was boring and uninteresting.

I purchased the paperback and paid a normal price. However, the print was larger then a normal book and contained more blank pages. If, the print was small like other books and didn't have the blank pages, instead of 289 pages, it would be about 189 pages.

I'm just glad I didn't pay for a hardcover version.

This book was so poorly written, too sketchy at times. In other areas the author jumped ahead and I had to figure out what she was trying to say. I have enjoyed all of the early Scarpetta books and truly miss Pete but the last few books really were not worth the time it took to read them

I'm happy to see that Cornwell has again deviated from Scarpetta and Lucy and Benton (the once wonderful, but now stale group of paranoid narcisists). Winn is fresh and has the potential to be an interesting and enduring character. Too bad that once she strays outside the world of autopsy and forensic medicine, Cornwell loses her knack for criminal motivation. The bottom line motivation of one of the characters isn't right...

[PSEUDO SPOILER ALERT]

...There's no way that the hot prosecutor could have been guilty of insider trading. And I find it surprising that Cornwell would ever intentionally let her genius characters believe that.

I should have read the jacket cover more thoroughly becasue I did not know it was just a serialization. I am on a negative roll with books because this is the second disappointment in the last few weeks when reading some of my favorite authors.

Anyway, this is useless trash - I agree with the reviewer who stated that this cannot be the same person who wrote all those execllent books early in her career. Pat, you don't need the money so why did you put this out. It is poorly written, hardly edited, makes no sense and leaves you scratching your head and looking at your empty wallet.

Do yourself a favor and skip it. Let me be disappointed for you.

I'm one of those diehard Patricia Cornwell fans who is still yearning for her to reel us back in. It's absolutely baffling to think that the same author who wrote Body Farm, Postmortem, Point of Origin, etc. could have written "At Risk." My opinion is that this is the worst book I have read in years. I had such high hopes when I heard she was writing "At Risk." I couldn't wait to meet the new characters, really wanted to love it. But reading this book was a boring chore, such a disappointing experience. It almost seems impossible that she could have written this. I guess the sad truth is that the publishers don't really care. They could put her name on a dictionary and people like me would buy it. I'd like to believe that Cornwell will eventually give her fans new characters, new plots, and a new book to love. This is not it.

I once thought I was a Patricia Cornwell fan, but no longer...too many disappointments lately. Yes, she's getting something published and to market, but it's no longer worth the time or money I was once willing to invest. This mediocre - and very short - read should have stayed in the pages of a magazine. I can only agree thoroughly with all the other one star reviews. Cornwell is no longer writing well; she seems to simply fulfill contract demands and not readers' expectations.

I was disappointed with this book - the normal twists and turns that you come to expect from Cornwell didn't seem to be there. The excitement of 'how does this connect' wasn't there either. I felt it was not worth the money and I'm sorry I ran to own it when it first came out. I understand artists want to stretch, but the formula that so many came to grow and love is not the plan for many of Cornwell's books anymore. I think this was an average work, and when I know that fabulous work is capable, feel that this was very ho-hum. Get it from your public library instead of supporting mediocre work.

I will start by saying something positive- I only spent $5.97 on At Risk.

That aside, I'd like to ask Patricia Cornwell why all her empowered female characters are either depressed, bitchy and/or neurotic? What's wrong with strength without the quasi-criminal behavior? The only characters I really liked were Sykes, Nana and Miss Dog.

The "sensational" cold case murder should've been solved twenty years ago without a lot of trying. A spurned lover decides to take down a female DA by planting a missing file in her house and have her murdered. And I guess we're supposed to believe that officers of the law have unlimited powers outside their home states to investigate crimes.

Thumbs down!

This was incredibly disappointing. The book was obviously thrown together with no effort to piece it together. It is dis-jointed and does not flow smoothly at all. It appears to be a college student's effort at a story and it should not have gotten a passing grade. Patricia Cornwell should be ashamed of letting this one get published. The Kaye Scarpetta series started out strong, but has fallen apart in the last few books. I have been disgusted with the last few books that I have bought by Patricia Cornwell and plan to wait to read the reviews before I bother to purchase another.